~ Smart is the new sexy.

Category Archives: Culture

Heather wrote a lovely post about our favorite Founding Foodie Thomas Jefferson a few years ago. We’ve talked a lot about how amazing Mr. Jefferson was and how much we both admire him. Somehow, I’ve managed to find a NEW reason to love Mr. Jefferson. Thanks to him, there is always something on the kids’ menu my two-year-old daughter will eat. Thank you, T.J., for macaroni and cheese!

The linked video says that President Jefferson even served mac and cheese at a State dinner. I love that idea! I wanted to have BBQ at my wedding but thought maybe people would think it wasn’t “classy” enough. But mac and cheese at a State dinner? That’s another level. Thank you, TJ! As the video said, “Every time you reach for your favorite guilty pleasure cranky-child-placating-device, say a little thank you to Thomas Jefferson.”

Huffington Post Books tweeted a cute little blog post called “Things You Didn’t Know About Dickens’s London.” Lo and behold, I didn’t know all of these things! I decided to add a few tidbits of my own that I have come across in all of my extensive research of the Victorian Era. Here are a few more things you probably didn’t know about Victorian England.

1. Victorian women would often use their bustles to hide baskets of food so they could enjoy a discreet snack during a long, dull house-call or a particularly strenuous turn about the garden.

“Got any Doritos in there? I’m famished!”

2. It was required by law that the height of a man’s top hat be directly proportional to the length of his, um, manhood. Some gentlemen paid large sums of money to convince their milliners to “exaggerate.”

“Albert, who do you think you are, Michael Fassbender?”

3. The Victorian pre-cursor to modern “Stitch and B*tch” clubs were called “Sew and Blow.” Ladies would bring their sewing and alternate taking hits of cocaine, which at the time was thought to have medicinal qualities.

4. Wealthy women would often employ a maid whose sole job was to give them pedicures.

5. As the Victorian obsession with Far East Asian culture and decor died out in the late 1880’s, it was replaced be a brief fad for West Indian culture. Dreadlocks and Rasta colors were very popular for a few seasons in London.

We be jammin’.

6. Victorians actually invented the first orbital rocket but were so embarrassed by its shape that they never launched it.

Actual name of this photo from Wikipedia, “Atlas V First Stage Erection.” Geez, even I’m uncomfortable.

If you’ve made it this far, I expect you have figured out that these are not, in fact, true at all. So please don’t cite us in any class papers, kids!

Exactly one month ago, the world became a much sadder place. Harold Ramis died at the age of 69, leaving us an incredible legacy of brilliant comedies and film-making. It is a virtual guarantee that something this man has written, produced, or directed made you laugh in this lifetime: SCTV, Stripes, Animal House, Caddyshack, National Lampoon’s Vacation (and anything Clark Griswold, since he advised Chevy Chase on how the role should be played), Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Analyze This, and the list goes on.

If you couldn’t tell by this wicked great blog Katherine and I have going on here, I’ve been something of a geek my whole life. I downright worshipped this sardonic braniac when I was a kid and saw in him all the intellectual, knowledge-seeking, sarcastic joke-cracking, marshmallow-destroying glory I sought in life (I will always nurse a wicked crush on Egon Spengler. Definitely the hottest Ghostbuster). To say that his death hit me hard would be something of an understatement. No, I never met the guy, but he was a big part of my childhood and was taken from us way too soon.

Meet Pinkabsinthe and her amazing steampunk, gotchic jewelry, clothing, and textile work. A Russian artist currently living in Poland, her clothing and jewelry features an astonishing attention to detail, color, and intricacy of form.

I love all of these collars.

She also makes fantastically detailed watch-cuffs, and complete sets of jewelry.

YOU GUYS IT’S A SKULL CAMEO EYE PATCH DO YOU UNDERSTAND.

It appears that not all of the gorgeous pieces on her deviantArt are available for purchase, so it if you find something you like, it might be worth shooting her a message on her Etsy page (she specifically requests that you use Etsy conversation for any questions or enquiries). Here’s her deviantArt website and her Etsy site.

I stumbled across an Etsy shop the other day that I wanted to share. The shop is called “Ms. Purdy’s Hats.” Ms. Purdy has a lovely collection of attention-getting Victorian-style hats, from the broad-brimmed types you might see on Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady” to the cheeky mini-top hats popular among Steampunks. They’re all gorgeous, but here are a few of my favorites.

Thankfully I do live in a state where I could potentially find a horse-race-centric use for a spectacular hat like this.

I love the color of this one.

This is a great “Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler” hat.

This photo doesn’t do justice to this hat – the other views better show the variation of color in the feathers and other details.

Perfect for tea parties or Downton Abbey dress up!

(Sigh) Have we discussed how much I wish people still wore hats? I think we have. Anyway, check out Ms. Purdy!

Heather hosted and set these lovely place settings as well as making some freaking delicious scones with our favorite, go-to scone recipe.

Our buddy Jennn supplied the delicious black and white sandwiches. I ate about a thousand. Her recipe came from allrecipes.com, and she suggests you use a mandolin slicer for the cukes. STRONGLY suggests.

Lastly, we had white chocolate Oreo truffles. I had these at a friend’s place over Christmas, and they were so good that I wanted to make a batch myself. I’ve seen recipes for these all over Pinterest and they are all pretty much the same. Here’s the one I used. These are pretty easy and really delicious.

We drank an Earl Grey Rooibos blend that Jennn brought back from Deutschland for our first pot, and then we had a silver needle Jasmine from Heather’s favorite place, Bea’s of Bloomsbury in London. An excellent, cozy repast on a chilly, rainy winter day.

Greetings, readers! I have just returned from a two-week adventure in beautiful East Asia. And since it’s almost 11pm, and I am not even close to feeling tired (jet-lag is a beast), I’m going to write a post.

One of the time-honored traditions in Japan is the tea ceremony. Green tea was originally imported from China in the 8th century for its medicinal properties. The preparation and drinking of tea was ritualized in the late 1400’s, and the ritual adopted and propagated by samurai during the Edo Period. This is no English afternoon cup of tea, though. Like many attributes of Japanese culture, the tea ceremony is a spiritual and ritualistic act, with every action taken by the partakers having some purpose or meaning. You can’t just show up, dunk a biscuit, and call it a day. The Japanese tea ceremony requires a special set of tools, and participants go through a very specific set of actions in order to perform the ritual correctly.

On our trip, I was fortunate enough to participate in a tea ceremony, and I was given some instruction beforehand on how to perform the ceremony correctly. Tea ceremony is typically performed in a tea house, like the one shown below.

The tea served at the tea ceremony is called “matcha,” a powdered green tea that has a strong, bitter flavor, and this must be prepared by a trained person. She will use a number of different tools to do this. She will have to heat water in the kettle or “kama” shown below.

Artifact from the Tokyo National Museum

Tea is scooped from a tea jar into the tea bowl using a very particular type of bamboo utensil, shown below.

Artifact from the Tokyo National Museum

Tea and water are then combined in the tea bowl (chawan), shown below.

Artifact from the Tokyo National Museum

The maker then uses a bamboo whisk to whip the tea into a froth.

Now the tea is ready to drink, but here comes the tricky part. This is where the ignorant Westerners have to correctly pull off the consumption of the tea. The bitter tea is (mercifully) served with some kind of sweet in order to counteract some of the bitterness. I’ve got to be honest, this tea did not taste good. It’s not something you whip up to relax before “Sherlock.” But remember, medicinal properties.

Once the tea is served to you, you may start the drinking process. Hold the bowl with your left hand under it and your right hand around it, front facing you. Turn the bowl with your right hand clockwise twice to move the front of the bowl away from you (you don’t drink from the front). Then, lift the bowl into the air as a sign of thanks before taking your first sip. The hostess will ask you how it tastes, and you are to reply, “kekkodesu,” which means something like, “This tastes terrible, but I have to lie and say I love it because them’s the rules.” You are then free to drink the tea. I have heard other sources insist you have to drink the tea in three gulps, but I was not taught that specifically, so maybe only certain schools teach that. You drink the tea until it is all gone and slurp the last sip as a sign of appreciation. Then, you take your right hand thumb and forefinger and wipe the rim of the bowl where you placed your mouth. Turn the bowl counterclockwise twice so that the front faces you again, and then you may set the tea bowl back down on the table.

The Japanese tea ceremony may be complicated, but the focus should be on enjoying and appreciating the moment, and I think that is what drinking tea of all kinds should be about.

To start this week off on the right foot (haHA crappy Monday jokes), here’s Vaslav Nijinsky (March 12, 1898 – April 8, 1950), a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent wildly considered the greatest dancer of the 20th century. He was one of the few male dancers who could dance en pointe and he apparently had ups to rival Michael Jordan (citation needed).

He was introduced to dance by his parents, who were also dancers, and he entered the Imperial Ballet School in Russia before he was 10. In 1909, he joined the Ballets Russes (founded by Sergei Diaghilev who eventually became Nijinsky’s lover…more on that later) and rose in popularity and acclaim as the star dancer of the company.

Along the lines of Lisztomania, the public went insane when they watched him perform (and even went on panty raids backstage): “An electric shock passed through the entire audience. Intoxicated, entranced, gasping for breath, we followed this superhuman being… the power, the featherweight lightness, the steel-like strength, the suppleness of his movements…” I’m not even sure how one would execute a panty raid on a member of the corps de ballet. Are there panties to raid? Anyhoo…

We also have to spend some time here talking about how he married his fangirl stalker. No, really. (For more ridiculous details, see #3 on this Cracked article here. “Romola de Pulszky Shared Her Sexy, Schizophrenic Husband With His Male Boss” sums it up pretty darn well.) Her name was Romola de Pulszky and apparently, she saw him perform once and then made a determined effort to get to know him (i.e., broke off her previous engagement, followed his touring company across Europe, convinced Diaghilev that she was a rich benefactress to get his attention and secure ballet lessons with one of the troupes dance-masters, AND, despite his continual ignoring of her, booked train compartments and hotel rooms next to him and told people she wanted to have his child. YIKES.).

Even MORE strangely, he randomly proposed to her (through halting French and mime, since neither spoke the others’ language. No, I am not making this up.). I mean, look at this crap:

“On board ship, Romola had a cabin in first class, which allowed her to keep a watch on Nijinsky’s door, while most of the company were exiled to second class. She befriended his masseur and was rewarded with a rundown on his musculature. Determined to take every opportunity, she succeeded in spending more and more time in his company. The unexpected friendliness was noticed by Baron de Gunsbourg, an investor in the Ballets Russes, who had been tasked with keeping an eye on the company. Instead of reporting back to Diaghilev on what was occurring, Gunsbourg agreed to act on Nijinsky’s behalf in presenting a proposal of marriage to Romola. Romola thought a cruel joke was being played on her, and ran off to her cabin crying. However, Nijinsky asked her again, in broken French and mime, and she accepted. Although Gunsbourg had a financial interest in Ballets Russes, he was also interested in forming his own company, and a split between Diaghilev and his star dancer might have presented him with an opportunity. … Back in Europe, Diaghilev “gave himself to a wild orgy of dissipation…Sobbing shamelessly in Russian despair, he bellowed accusations and recriminations; he cursed Nijinsky’s ingratitude, Romola’s treachery, and his own stupidity”.

…BUT THE CRAZY CONTINUES.

“As the company was due to start performing immediately, there was no honeymoon. A few days after the marriage, Nijinsky tried to teach Romola some ballet, but she was not interested. “I asked her to learn dancing because for me dancing was the highest thing in the world”, “I realized that I had made a mistake, but the mistake was irreparable. I had put myself in the hands of someone who did not love me.” Romola and Nijinsky did not share accommodation until after the season was safely underway, when she was eventually invited to join him in separate bedrooms in his hotel suite. She “almost cried with thankfulness” that he showed no interest in making love on their wedding night.”

I’ve got nothing, folks. If you want even more of the crazy, check out that Cracked article that I linked; it includes bisexual affairs, more crazy letter writing, revisionist history, attempts to pray away Nijinsky’s homosexuality, bouts of schizophrenia, and an eventual committal to an asylum. He died in a London clinic in 1950 and his body is buried at Montmartre Cemetery in Paris. Despite his Jerry Springeresque marital dysfunction, he’ll forever be known as one of the most outstanding and sensual performers to ever grace the stage.

‘Zounds, Friday night was a serious learning experience for me. I have never in my life heard so many righteous insults in rapid succession, and of such varied nature! Here are a few of the best ones from Henry IV: Part 1. Feel free to use some of these at work today. No one will know what you actually mean, but they will still have a strong sense of being disparaged.

1. Starveling

2. Elf-skin

3. Dried neat’s tongue

4. Bull’s pizzle (I really like this one)

5. Tickle-brain (this one seems like a cutesy nickname for a kid but I wouldn’t advise using it on children)

6. Bacon-fed knave (this doesn’t sound so bad – everyone likes bacon)

7. Whoreson caterpillar (!!! It sounds like I made that one up, right? It’s Shakespeare!)

Heather pointed out that in addition to inventing all literary tropes ever in the world and all idioms, turns of phrase, and metaphors in the English language, Shakespeare also invented fat-shaming. Here are a few to use on your corpulent friends-soon-to-be-enemies.

1. Trunk of humours

2. Bolting-hutch of beastliness (could also be a compliment for a really jacked dude? I feel like my husband would be flattered if I called him this, you bulting-hutch of beastliness, you!)

3. Swollen parcel of dropsies (LOVE this one)

4. Stuffed cloak-bag of guts

5. Roasted Manning-tree ox with the pudding in his belly (I feel like the pudding part is overkill)

6. Fat-kidneyed rascal

Woe to the person who interrupts me in a meeting today. Happy Tuesday, everyone!